Chapter 81: 75: Farming Rock-Monsters

“On second, thought, turn around,” you say to your spider and ride her back to the mountainside, where the rock-creatures linger. The logic is obvious—with the amount of ground you can cover on your spider and how much time you are able to save, obviously you won’t be traveling on foot. And, to avoid unwanted attention, travel by night is the best option. Which leaves you with a lot of time to kill. What better way to spend it than ‘grinding’ some weak monsters for experience?

Despite never seeing any concrete confirmation of experience system or so much as a sniff of an ‘exp bar’, there has been enough evidence in the past that points to you leveling up after successful killing blows or, perhaps, successfully used skills on enemies. And, while these rocks monsters are obviously weaker than you, and even the most basic game knowledge suggests that your progress would be (or at least, should be) slower, if any, it is still a viable test to run, with substantial possible benefits, and barely any downsides. You just need to keep track of your energy, to make sure to be at maximum by sunset, for your overnight journey to Ranville.

Once you’re back in the middle of the rock-monster area, you come off your spider’s back and, before she disappears anyway, say to her, “Try killing one of these things.”

The sentient piles of rocks don’t even reach your knees, so siccing a giant spider on them seems like bullying. Yet, her attacks prove to be, perhaps predictably, highly ineffective. Sure, she can trap the rocks in her webs effortlessly, however, her cuts and slashes barely make a dent on them. As for stings or bites… You’re just glad that she didn’t break her teeth. To no one's surprise poison is not very effective on rocks. The Arachne kicks away one of the rock monsters in frustration, but only ends up with a swollen appendage for her troubles.

“That’s enough,” you say when you can no longer watch this shameful display. At least these monsters don’t seem to turn aggressive toward you or your summon, for whatever reason that may be. The spider’s time runs out and, as always, she disappears in a puff of gray smoke.

You could use your [Shadow Bolt], but at 25 energy a pop, this ‘leveling’ session would not be very productive. When in doubt—

“Summon Imps!” you shout and five, loyal, giggling loli imps appear before you.

“See these monsters around you?” you ask the little girls, unable to hold back your smile, looking at your faithful and most competent servants. “I want you to kill them all, by any means necessary. Begin!”

Their overlapping giggling would send chills down your spine if they weren’t on your side. They cast giant fireballs, that envelop two, sometimes three monsters at once, jump at them with their daggers, stabbing long enough until the rocks break apart. What are those daggers made out of? You can’t help but wonder. If money ever became an issue, you could just sell those daggers at some weapon shop and get out of town with the money, before they disappear along with the imps.

Whether fire magic and stabbing attacks are effective against rock-type monsters or not, your imps tear through them with frightening efficiency. After a couple of minutes, you find a nice soft and dry spot in the sun to sit down on and relax. The most convenient thing about this whole process is that the area somehow manages to never run out of these monsters. They always crawl out from behind another rock, or out of that pile of moss. Even though some roleplaying game elements have been present since the very start—level progression and skills being the prime offenders—this is truly the first time you feel like you are inside one of those games you used to play.

With the [Summon Imps] spell costing eighty energy, which takes forty minutes to fully recover, your ‘farming’ sessions quickly settle into a routine of twenty minutes of ‘farming’ and twenty minutes of rest, letting the rock-monsters to repopulate the area. It is helpful that the monsters are incapable of emitting a single sound, so you don’t have to remind yourself more than necessary about what the rocks could possibly be feeling or going through as they die. How many have you killed already without even learning the name of these creatures?

After a couple of hours you slowly get used to the idea, that you will probably not crack another level by the end of the day, but, being no stranger to old-school ‘farming’ that would last for days, you keep going. Especially considering how little effort it takes on your part.

With the sun approaching the horizon you are startled by a familiar *ding* and a tab appearing before your eyes, signaling what you’ve been “working” for this entire time.

[Level up!]
[Congratulations! You are now a level 8 Demon Lord!]

[Energy 356/356]

The energy bonus carried over to the next level, increasing your baseline energy maximum by fifteen percent, becoming increasingly useful with each level. Before selecting what to use your new spell point on and departing to Ranville, you decide to ‘farm’ for a little longer. It only takes one more cast of the spell, to receive another notification.

[Congratulations! Spell [Summon Imps] is now level 3!]

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You jump up. Instead of five loyal, giggling lolis, you now see eight.

“Continue on,” you say to them and bring up your spell, to see the specifics.

[Summon Imps - lvl 3
Energy cost: 120
Summons 8 Imps under your direct command. The imps carry daggers for melee attacks and can each unleash several fireballs.]

“Ouch! Costly,” you frown, realizing how quickly your spell costs are growing out of control. On one hand, it’s actually good—why spam the same spell several times in a row, like you had to in the past, when you could get the job done with just one cast? It looks much more cooler that way too. On the other hand, you like to be versatile and not run out of options after two-three spell casts like some novice magician. Which, you admittidly are, but that is beside the point.

Either way, considering just how long it took for you to squeeze out a level out of these poor creatures, you feel enough is enough and, with the sun finally disappearing behind the green horizon, you cast [Summon Spider] and set out to Ranville. With any luck, you might find your companions there. Searching for them at night would be foolish, and, somehow, you feel that this journey has already taken you longer than you expected.

[Use a Spell Point!]

[Summon Golem – lvl 1
Cost: 25
Summons a Clay Golem with defensive capabilities.]

[Wall of Fire – lvl 1
Cost: 10
Summons a two-meter high, five-meter long wall of fire.]

[Tentacle From Beyond - lvl 1
Cost: 15
Summons a highly durable, lust-filled Tentacle to trap a single target.]

[Masturbation Hex - lvl 1
Cost: 10
Places a hex on a single target causing them to be consumed with the desire to masturbate.]

[Loss of Libido - lvl 1
Cost: 5
Temporarily reduces the sex drive of a single target.]

[Offense Trait – lvl 1
Additionally increases the power of your spells.]

[Defensive Trait – lvl 1
Additionally increases Your defensive statistics and resistances.]

[Summon Duration Trait – lvl 2
Increases the time duration of your summons by another 20 minutes (for a total summon duration of 40 minutes).]

[Energy Pool Trait – lvl 2
Increases your maximum total energy by another 10% (for a total energy increase of 25%).]

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